Lubricant composition



. June 9, 1936.

A. w. BURWELL LUBRICANT COMPOSITION Filed Jan. l5, 1934 5 Sheets-Sheet lI/mcompounakd railway m'r oz'b,

Bear/hg @gis/1re. /s. per s@ June 9, 1936.

A. w BURWELL.

LUBRICANT COMPOSITION Filed J'ap. '15, 1934 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Standardergga'ne pa'l F gf -rzzzrcrzealY abr/cantal n l 5 700 800 @per J9@01,6017/ g und 30a 40o 5w 5m Laad.

,Fd/wax.

Filed Jan. 15, 1934 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 per sqm 31a/UWM:

Ml/W36- Patented June 9, l1936 LUBBICANT COMPOSITION Arthur W. Bnrwell,Niagara Falls, N. Y., assignor to Alox Corporation, New York, N. Y., acorporation of New York Application January 15, 1934, semi Nar-106,140

2 Claims.

The present invention relates to the production of improved lubricantcompositions comprising lubricating oils of mineral origin as theirbases, and is concerned more particularly with a composition produced byadmixing with a lubricating oil a plurality of diierent substances eachhaving the function of enhancing the lubricity of the oil.

In U. S., PatentV No. 1,863,004 to Arthur W. Burwell it was disclosedthat the lubricity of'a lubricating oil of mineral origin may beimproved by the addition thereto of a relatively very small buteffective amount of an oil'soluble addition material of mineral origin,which material was substantially free of hydrocarbons and consistedessentially of high-molecular-weight aliphatic oxygen-containingcompounds including a substantial proportion of free saturatedaliphaticl carboxylic acids. It was there disclosed that Vsuoli additionmaterial is obtainable by the controlled, liquid-phase oxidation ofscale wax, Sharples wax (i. e., the sticky, amorphous, translucent,solid obtained by diluting crude petroleum with light petroleumdistillate, chilling the mixture to about minus 17 F., and centrifugallyseparating precipitated solids from the chilled mixture), a petroleumdistillate, or the like, at a temperature of from about to about C. andat a superatmospheric pressure not greater than about 320 pounds perlsquare inch, in the presence of an exciter of oxidatum, unta the pointof incipient formation of compounds which are insoluble in petroleum andin the reaction mixture, such mixture comprising saponiable andunsaponiiable components, separating the saponifiable components from atleast the major portion of the unsaponiable components, removing themore readily volatile ingredients of the separated saponifiables portionand drying the resulting residue. Likewise, in application Serial No.700,018, filed November 27, 1933, in the names of Arthur W. Burwell andAdolf Kempe, it has been disclosed that wholly neutral mixtures of suchoxygen compounds of relatively high-molecular-weight hydrocarbons ofmineral origin-specifically, neutral esters prepared from the acidsdisclosed in said Burwell Patent No. 1,863,004-have the property ofenhancing the lubricity of a lubricating oil of mineral origin. Whetherin the esterized form or in the free form, these originally acidicmixtures of oxidized hydrocarbons are lubricant aids orlubricity-enhancing materials, and are so denominated herein.

It has now been found that mixtures of such lubricant aids prepared froma plurality of different starting materials have materially greatereilect in lubricant compositions comprising lubricating oil than havethe lubricant aids prepared from a single starting material, and it isthe essence of the present invention to provide improved lubricant aidsby combining or blending lubricant aids derived from at least twodissimilar (or at least different) starting materials of lubricant aidderived from crude scale wax produces a lubricant which has a materiallylower internal resistance and is capable of withstanding materiallyhigher pressures than is the case with the oil per se; that thesubstitution of a like amount of a similarly prepared lubricant aidderived from amorphous, or Sharples, wax for the lubricant aid derivedfrom scale wax in the above lubricant composition shows very nearly'equivalent improvements in the aforesaid prop erties; While thesubstitution of a like amount of a mixture of similarly preparedlubricant aids derived from crude scale wax and from amorphous waxproduces a composition having a materially reduced internal friction ascompared either with the scale wax aid composition or with the amorphouswax aid composition alone, which composition far exceeds thepressure-sustaining properties of the other two compositions. Typical ofthe data supporting the above statements are the following datacollected relative to (a) the internal friction and (b)pressure-resisting properties of a motor lubricating oil and ofcompositions prepared from that oil, it being noted that these testswere made using a Lubarometer testing machine of 1000 pounds per squareinch pressure capacity:

free acids; (2) those acids in completely neutral esteriz'ed form; (3)unsaponiiiable oxidation produets such (as was mentioned hereinbefore)as the naturally completely neutral and unsaponiiiable mixtures ofalcohols, alcohol-ketones and ketones derived by removing all saponiablematerial from an oxidation reaction mixture; or (4) mixtures of theabove agents. l

'Ihe following specific examples, taken in connection with theaccompanying drawings, in which Figs. 1, 2 and 3 are graphs showingrelationships between bearing pressures and (a) tangent friction dragsand (b) coemcients of friction of the lubricant compositions describedin the correspondingly numbered examples, will serve to illustrate andfurther describe the invention:

Example 1 The oil used as the basis of test in this example was arailway car oil having of itself Va very high resistance to shock and tofilm rupture. It had been prepared from a -20 F. cold-test pressed oil(from wax distillate) which had been reduced. for flash and fire test,in a still using much bottom steam to prevent cracking of the oilhydrocarbons, and thereafter had been subjected to vigorous aeration inthe presence of free steam, at at- (c) 36-40 distillate (i. e., fuel oilo r light ends of pressed oil taken oi upon second distillation). Thesethree so-called ketonic lubricant aids in each case consistedessentially of acid-free unsaponiable and completely neutral oxidationproducts of the hydrocarbons of the named starting material.

The oil was tested alone: thereafter to another portion of the same oil1% by weight of the above mixture was added and the resultingcomposition was similarly tested; and finally a composition consistingof 98% by weight of the oil and 2% of the above mixture was tested inthe same manner. In this test the bearing metals lubricated were steeland bronze; the bearing speed was 500 feet per minute; the bearingtemperature was maintained constant at 140 C.; and the increase intangent friction drag with increasing bearing pressure was measured inpounds per square inch.

The influences of the mixed lubricant oil in lowering the tangentfriction drag, and the coeiiicient of friction, respectively, of therailway car oil, whenI added thereto in relatively very small amounts,are shown in Fig. 1, in which the solid lines marked #1 represent theuncompounded oil, the dot-and-dash lines marked #2 represent the oilcomposition containing but 1% of the aforesaid mixed lubricant aid, andthe broken lines marked #3 represent the oil composition containing 2%of the said mixed lubricant aid. Relative to the coeflicient of frictioncurves, it will be noted; that the 1% composition (line #2), within therange of from 200 to 650 pounds perl denced no suggestion of imminentfilm rupture on the part of the 2% composition even at the maxl- In thiscase the following compositions were compared:

Composition C=99.5% of a standard engine oil known as Renown Engine,into which'there was blended 0.5% of a mixed lubricant oil produced bymixing equal parts by weight of the lubricant aids produced, inaccordance with the process described and claimed in Burwell Patent No.1,863,004, from (1) parafllne wax and (2) amorphous or Sharples wax.

Composition D=99.5% of 28 paramne oil, having a viscosity of 100 Saybolt`at 100 F., and 0.5% of the mixture of lubricant aids referred to underC" above. Y

Composition E=99.0% of the 28 parafline Oil of composition "D above,plus 1.0% of the mixture of lubricant aids referred to under C above.

These three compositions were tested for coefficient of friction andtangent friction drag, using a bronze bearing and a steel shaft withperipheral speed maintained at 500 feet per minute.

Fig. 2 shows the plotted results of the test, in which the bearing loadswere progressively increased, by 100 pound increments, from 100 poundsto 1,000 pounds.

The following data. is supplementary to that shown in Fig. 2:

l E-126 F. Each composition was tested for 30 minutes at the maximumload of 1,000 pounds,-

and showed less than 5 increase in temperature above the average of thetests.

All three compositions showed very similar characteristics: they hadvery low values of friction coeilicient and of drag, and at maximumpressure capacity of the testing machine gave no indication ofapproaching-film rupture.

Composition E showed properties in all respects as good as those ofcastor oil, with a considerably lower coeflicient of friction (at allpoints) than that of castor oil.

Illustrating the effect of a mixed lubricant ald when blended in verysmall amount with a lubricating oil of Coastal type, 0.3% by weight ofthe mixed lubricant aid referred to in C of Example 2 above was admixedwith 99.7% of "200.

Pale Coastal Oil, and this composition, denominated Oil A compounded,was compared as to tangent friction drag and to coefficient of frictionwith said oil unblended, denominated Oil A. The data of this comparativetest are shown in Fig. 3.

It is to be noted that the,uncompounded oil showed .a markedly highercoeficient of friction, at all points, than did the composition, andthat the uncoznpounded oil failed at 900 pounds pressure while thecomposition still was capable of sustaining further increments ofpressure without iilm rupture. ture rose to 142 F. in the case of Oil Awhereas maximum bearing temperature in the case of Oil A compounded was137 F.

. Mixed lubricant aids other than those specically illustrated above maybe employed. Thus, for instance, there may be used mixtures ofdeacidif-led oxidized products from a plurality of different sources,such as may be produced by removing free acids from the-oxidationreaction Maximum bearing tempera- 4mixtures from two or more diierentsources, by

oxidation, separation and treatment of 4each of a l plurality ofdifferent starting materials is not necessary for the provision of themixed lubri cant aids of the present invention, since the latter may beprepared from oxidation reaction mixtures derived from a mixture of twoor more different starting materials. For example, Sharples wax may bemixed with afnormally liquid fraction of petroleum and the resultingmixture oxidized, and subsequently processed in. the manner hereinbeforedescribed with respect to single starting materials. I claim:

1. A lubricating oil composition comprising a major proportion of alubricating oil and a minor proportion of a lubricity-increasing agentsoluble in said oil, said agent consisting o! a; mixture oflubrlcity-increasing oxidation products derived l0 from at least twodiierent petroleum hydrocarbon materials of the group consisting ofscale wax, amorphous wax and normally liquid petroleum hydrocarbons.

claim 1, characterized in that the said oxidation products are neutral.

anion w. Buavvrm..

2. The iubrioating on oomposition defined in 1s

